Update on Knitting Projects

December 8, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comments | 9:45 am

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It’s been several days since my last post. I have been busy with Christmas preparations. Finally have all the Christmas decorating done and can now concentrate on finishing up my Christmas knitting projects. I have finished the Chevron Scarf — but since I had enough yarn leftover, I decided to knit a tam to go with the scarf. Here’s a picture:

ChevronTam1

I’m almost done, however, I’m not totally certain this item is going to turn into an actual tam. I’m following the basic instructions from EZ in Knitting without Tears, adjusting for gauge,etc. But still, when I put it on my head, it doesn’t look like a tam. I’m going to trust EZ and see what it looks like when washed and dried over a large dinner plate. 🙂

That leaves the Diamond Brocade patterned scarf for my DD to finish. I haven’t knit on this at all since before Thanksgiving, so as soon as I finish the tam, I will focus on getting this done.

DS has just requested new socks for Christmas. (Sigh…) He’s going to get two balls of yarn and a promise for a hand-knitted pair from me to come after Christmas.

I have placed the SFS socks in time out. The gusset on the darn things appears to have holes where I picked up stitches even though I knit through the back loops to make the stitches tighter. I think this is probably due to the extra stretchiness of the Regia stretch yarn. I’m going to have to frog back to the heel turn and start the gusset over. 🙁 I just can’t cope with this at the moment — hence the time out. Looks like January knitting will be baby items and socks!

1 thought on “Update on Knitting Projects”

Amanda says:

December 8, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Seems you are making progress on things, even if it is slow. I posted the link to how I did my Ravelry bars on my blog yesterday.

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Cast On Methods: Cable Cast On and Backwards LoopCast On Methods: Cable Cast On and Backwards Loop

The Cable cast on is very similar to the knitted cast on. It starts the same way as the knitted cast on, where you make a slip knot and place it on your needle and then knit through the loop to form the next stitch. After this step, instead of knitting another stitch and putting it back on the right needle, you insert your needle between the two stitches to form the next loop and then place that back on the right hand needle. You continue making stitches by going between two stitches to make the loop.

Where I use the Cable cast on:

When I need a firm edge such as the border on a blanket
When I need to add stitches at the end of a row
Making a one -row buttonhole

Backwards Loop (e-Wrap) Cast On is a very basic cast on and is one of the cast ons often taught to beginning knitters. It starts with a short tail and a slip knot placed on a knitting needle. You then take the working yarn and wrap it over your thumb , insert the needle under the loop on the outside of your thumb and let it slide off your thumb onto the needle and tighten up the stitch.

Where to use the Backwards Loop Cast on:

This is an elastic cast on that can be used for most projects needing a stretchy edge (hats, gloves). You can also use it to add stitches in the middle of rows (i.e. the underarm of a top down sweater or at the base of the fingers of a glove.) You can also use it to add stitches at the end of a row. The loops between stitches can look sloppy so you need to pay attention to how you make your loops.

Here are links to YouTube videos for these two cast ons:

Knitting Help – Cable Cast On

Refined Cable Cast On

How to Knit: Backwards Loop Cast On

Technique Tutorial: Backwards Loop Cast On (shows how to cast on in middle of stitches)

Summer KnittingSummer Knitting

I’m back after a 9 week hiatus. Life sometime intervenes in personal activities and I haven’t had time to blog since just after my son’s wedding. Things seem to be settling down and since we have hit that time of the summer when there’s not much on TV to watch, I may have some time in the evenings to work on my blog and my website.

For the next few posts, I’m going to focus on the topic of “Summer Knitting”. Summer is that time of year when I like to have a few smaller projects going on my needles. Small projects are very portable and can be easily tossed into the car or suitcase when heading out of town on a trip. These projects also need to be fairly simple patterns — I don’t like having to concentrate on a complex pattern when traveling or sitting with friends/relatives.

My first summer knitting project was a knitted doily. Knitted doilies are a bit of novelty for me — since I also crochet, I have always crocheted my doilies and never really gave much thought to the possibility that doilies could also be knitted. However, I have recently discovered two lovely patterns for knitted doilies on the web and I knit them up using size 10 crochet cotton thread and size US 3 needles.

Doily 1 is “Liz Snella’s Heirloom Doily”. Finished it measured 12 inches in diameter. I used double point needles to start and then switched to a 24 inch circular needle. As with all doilies, this pattern knit up quickly and I was able to finish it in a couple of evenings.

Doily 2 is named “Doily with Star”. Finished it measured 10 inches in diameter. With this doily, I used two circular needles rather than double points and a circular needle. Again, I was able to finish this doily in only a few hours of knitting.

I gave both of these doilies to my MIL for Mother’s Day. She was delighted – and since she doesn’t knit, she was also surprised that I had knitted them rather than crocheted them.

So – if you are looking for a small summer project: try knitting a doily. It’s a great way to practice using double points and/or two circular needles. I’ve included links to the two patterns below.

Happy knitting. Lindy

Links to patterns: Liz Snella’s Heirloom Doily

Doliy with Star

Socks for CharlotteSocks for Charlotte

I knit two little pairs of socks for Charlotte shortly after she was born. In fact, while I was visiting at the hospital, my DS traced one of Charlotte’s footprints so that I could take it home a make a pair of socks for her little feet.

Her little foot measured 3 inches from the tip of her big toe to her heel. I used some sock yarn I had on hand in a variegated shades of pink and a size US 1 (2.25 mm) 32 inch long circular. The socks were knit using Magic Loop, two at a time. I knit them from the cuff down. These little socks knit up quickly and I made a second pair using another skein of yarn that was a light pink color. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the second pair. DIL reported that these socks stayed on her feet when most do not.

I wrote up the pattern for these socks. Each pair takes only 10 g of sock yarn, so it would be a great way to use up leftover yarn from your bigger sock knitting projects. 🙂
Here is the link to the pattern: Newborn Size Socks